Dr. Gretchen Clum is a licensed clinical psychologist and associate professor in the department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences. She has dedicated the past 25 years to understanding the mechanisms linking stressful life events, mental health, and poor health outcomes among women and adolescents. She is focused in particular on vulnerable populations, such as women who have experienced violence and HIV positive adolescents, with the ultimate goal of developing and testing evidence-based interventions that promote and protect the health of these groups.
Dr. Clum teaches graduate courses at the Tulane University SPHTM in maternal and child health, social and behavioral factors influencing health, and program planning. She also teaches an undergraduate course focused on prevention of sexual violence.
Her expertise and experience in working with understanding sexual violence was sought by the Office of the President of Tulane University in 2018 when she was asked to lead the Tulane Sexual Misconduct Climate Survey. This work lead to the development of a number of campus-wide initiatives to confront and address the issue of sexual violence and harassment among Tulane students. Her findings focusing on LGBTQ students in particular revealed high rates of sexual violence experienced in this community and the need for greater exploration to understand needs and develop resources for LGBTQ+ students.
A recent addition to Dr. Clum’s research portfolio is her interest in social and behavioral factors that influence nutrition and physical activity among women and adolescents. She has been exploring how access to groceries in the city of New Orleans influences food intake and self-reported health among local residents. She hopes this work will help to advance policies and programs that promote equal access to healthy foods in order to advance population health equity for all New Orleanians.
